Key Libyan diplomats disowned Muammar Qaddafi’s regime on Monday and the country’s deputy UN ambassador called on the long-time ruler to step down because of its bloody crackdown on protesters.
The Libyan ambassador to the US also said he could no longer support Qaddafi, and the ambassador to India resigned. Almost all Libyan diplomats at the UN backed deputy ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi’s pleas to Qaddafi to end his 40-year rule and to the international community to intervene.
As diplomatic support for Qaddafi began to crumble, Dabbashi warned that if he doesn’t leave, “the Libyan people will get rid of him.”
Photo: Reuters
Qaddafi’s security forces unleashed the most deadly crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, with reports on Monday that demonstrators were being fired at from helicopters and warplanes. After seven days of protests and deadly clashes in Libya’s eastern cities, the eruption of turmoil in the capital, Tripoli, sharply escalated the challenge to Qaddafi.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon late on Monday expressed outrage at the reported aerial attacks, saying they would be “a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” and again called for an immediate end to the violence, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said. Earlier on Monday, Ban spoke to Qaddafi for 40 minutes urging a halt to the bloodshed, respect for human rights and protection of the civilian population.
Libya’s ambassador in Washington, Ali Adjali, told BBC World that the reports of firing from warplanes spurred his decision not to support the government any more.
Photo: Reuters
“To me it is a very sad moment seeing Libyans killing other Libyans,” he said. “I’m not supporting the government killing its people ... I’m [not] resigning Muammar Qaddafi’s government, but I am with the people. I am representing the people in the street, the people who’ve been killed, the people who’ve been destroyed. Their life is in danger.”
Dabbashi, the deputy UN ambassador, also said he and the UN diplomats were not resigning because they served the people of Libya and not the regime.
“This is in fact a declaration of war against the Libyan people,” he told reporters, surrounded by a dozen Libyan diplomats. “The regime of Qaddafi has already started the genocide against the Libyan people.”
Dabbashi said he was writing to the UN Security Council calling for action to stop the bloodshed.
Libya’s UN Ambassador Mohamed Shalgham was not present at Dabbashi’s press conference. He told the UN correspondent for the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat that all diplomats at Libya’s mission supported Dabbashi “excluding me.” Shalgham said he was in touch with the Qaddafi government and was trying “to persuade them to stop these acts.”
Libya’s Ambassador to India, Ali al-Essawi, told the BBC he had resigned because of “massive violence against Libyan civilians,” while Abdel-Moneim al-Houni, who resigned on Sunday as Libya’s ambassador to the Arab League in Cairo, demanded Qaddafi and his commanders and aides be put on trial for “the mass killings in Libya.”
“Qaddafi’s regime is now in the trash of history because he betrayed his nation and his people,” al-Houni said in a statement.
A Libyan diplomat in China, Hussein el-Sadek el-Mesrati, told al-Jazeera: “I resigned from representing the government of Mussolini and Hitler.”
Qaddafi appeared very briefly on Libyan state television early yesterday to attempt to show he was still in charge and dispel rumors that he had fled.
Qaddafi is reportedly using mercenaries against the protesters and Dabbashi urged the international community to impose a no-flight zone “on the cities of Libya so no mercenaries, no supplies of arms will arrive to the regime.”
Dabbashi also urged the international community to establish safe passage for medical supplies from neighboring Tunisia and Egypt to get across the borders to Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, which was the scene of the heaviest fighting. By Monday, protesters had claimed control of the city, overrunning its main security headquarters.
“We also call on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate the crimes against humanity committed by Qaddafi against the Libyan people,” Dabbashi said.
The best scenario, he said, “is to have him before the court, to prosecute him and to know from him everything about the crimes he committed before, whether it is ... the genocide he is committing now or the disappearance of certain important personalities ... and all the other crimes he has committed during the 42 years in power.”
Dabbashi also called on all countries to refuse entry to Qaddafi if he tries to escape and to monitor financial transactions if he tries to send money outside Libya.
Some 70 human rights groups called for immediate international action “to halt the mass atrocities now being perpetrated by the Libyan government against its own people.”
The groups urged the UN Security Council to meet and take action to protect Libyan civilians from “crimes against humanity,” and they urged the UN General Assembly to suspend Libya from membership on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.
The signatories included the US-based National Endowment for Democracy, Physicians for Human Rights, Geneva-based UN Watch and groups from many other countries including South Africa, Switzerland, India, Nigeria, Germany, Pakistan, Venezuela and Britain.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese